MSL Reaches the Launch Complex

The predawn light reveals the payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft as it is prepared to be lifted into place atop the Atlas V rocket already waiting at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The fairing, which protects the payload during ascent, will be lifted and mated to the Atlas V rocket already in place at the launch pad.
Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Nov. 3, 2011